


Duck's Journal

by BleatingGoat (Nat20)



Category: Flight Rising
Genre: Body Horror, Caves, Character Loosely Inspired by TAZ Duck Newton, Character Loosely Inspired by TAZ Indrid Cold, Dead People, Folklore, Forests, Gen, Horror, Monsters, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Psychological Horror
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-02
Updated: 2019-04-04
Packaged: 2019-11-08 04:10:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 3,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17974232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nat20/pseuds/BleatingGoat
Summary: It’s an old leather journal…It smells of paper, leather, ink, and… french onion soup? Odd. It was laying in the grass of a large forest. Looks like its been here for a while.





	1. Day 1, Summer

**Author's Note:**

> The first several chapters taken from Tumblr for ease. Most chapters will be short.

I’m not too keen on the months, but I will keep track of the seasons here. I’m mostly keeping this journal for record for myself and maybe my family. Anyway…

The new boss, Silvius, took me around the ol’ place. Apparently there are parts of these ancient woods that folk can wander around in without too much incident. Although the area that’s considered “safe” is only about three hundred acres in any direction. A perfect box, he told me. If someone left that box then, well, who knows when we’d find them.

The forest extends into some cave systems that have its own weather. A cave. With its own weather. That’s just plain weird. It’s hard to see in there. I need a light source just to see my own hand in front of my face.

Then there’s what Silvius calls the “deep woods”. I’m not supposed to go in there. No matter what. That’s his territory. Man lives right on the edge of it in this tiny shack. I, however, was given a cabin on the edge of the safe zone. That way visitors can read warnings posted on the main road in.

Don’t go past the markers.

Don’t go on closed trails.

No one ever listens to it, but I’m sure there will be no missing persons on my first day.

Gods, I hope not.


	2. Day 2, Summer

I’ve been officially claimed by the Callaghan family. I don’t know what that means, but Alynn came by to inform me that they won the fight. I didn’t even know there was a fight. Oh well. I live in their territory anyway.

She gave me some cattle and some goats. Told me that they could help keep me fed with milk and cheese. But she also looked into the forests and said they would let me know of any approaching danger. I don’t know what danger some livestock would warn me of but alright.

I also have a llama now. She just showed up out of no where. I’m going to call her Robin. Pigeon seems to like her just fine.

Speaking of Pigeon, I won the last pangolin race! Brought home a blue ribbon and some potatoes. I’m going to make Pigeon a nice bowl of grumps and worms and ants I find. She always likes those.

Alynn came by before I started my evening patrol. She gave me a mask that looks like the cross between a hare and a wild boar. Said it would keep me safe. It scares the hell out of me, but I put it on the front door as decoration. She wasn’t too pleased I didn’t wear it but she didn’t argue. I could sense some strong glare vibes.

–

Something just scratched up the goddamn yard and scared the cows and goats. Not to mention the porch. Robin was throwing a fit. I finally calmed her down but she keeps snorting and stomping towards the woods. Probably just a bear.

Although, I need to take some pictures of those claw marks. Might be a new sub-species or something. But its two in the damn morning. I’m going back to bed.

NOTE TO SELF: talk to Silvius about putting up some sort of fence. At least for the livestock. I don’t want them getting hurt by this bear.


	3. Day 3, Summer

Today was my first official day in the forest. Silvius was helping me with crowd control. It’s summer so a lot of people were coming in for berry picking and fishing. That was all fine and dandy until this one family came.

I guess I need to write all this down. For record keeping. I’ll try to get most of the details.

This pearlcatcher and her husband, a coatl, came in with their young kids. No more than a week old. They were going to pick some berries while they were still good and ripe. I warned them to stay within the safe zone. Clearly marked on every tree. Every single gods damned tree. Its impossible to miss the boundary. But apparently the mom wanted some nicer looking berries past the border. According to her husband, he warned her about the safe zone’s perimeters and told her not to go past them without a guide. She ignored him.

He stayed on the other side of the boundary and watched her, but his kids called him. He said he looked away for a second and then she was gone. Just… gone.

Immediately he called for me and Silvius. I looked all around the safe zone. Within three miles! The whole damn square! No signs of struggle. No sign of attack. I asked the local beastclans to help but they couldn’t find anything either.

But I did find her pearl. In the river about half a mile out. I gave the pearl to the family and said I’d keep an eye and ear out for her. The father, a Bovidae resident I think, left without many words. I asked Silvius why he didn’t have any sort of, I don’t know, care?

Silvius said we aren’t looking for a living person anymore. We’re looking for a body. Whenever and wherever that ends up.

He said I’d get used to it.

I don’t know what he means.


	4. Day 4, Summer

Okay. So, today was pretty normal except for when I got home. But to start off with, lots of nice families, some teens and young dragons and beasts looking for some fun. I told them about the warnings and they all said they knew. Respected the boundaries. Stayed on the trails. Came to me for questions. All good. Only had to chew out one group for not properly putting out their fire. All in all a good day’s work.

Then I got home. Silvius has given me the a-okay to build an enclosure and maybe a barn for my livestock. He said it wouldn’t make much difference if something wanted them but if it helped me sleep at night. He left me alone for my whole shift, but when I got home there was a fence, gate, and barn. All made out of natural growing tree branches and roots. From a single. Fucking. Tree. Like gods damn!! What is this guy, some sort of wizard? I offered him some french onion soup as thanks but he declined and said he had to get back to work. At dusk. Oh well. His loss.

I was making dinner when I heard that scratching again and Robin was going ass over tea kettle outside about something. I went to go check and this big fuzzy thing on all fours was retreating back to the wounds. I had more scratches on the my porch. None touching the door or windows. The fence was fine and nothing hurt. All fine and dandy.

So, here I was, thinking about what to write in my journal for today when there’s a knock at my door. I think “huh, that’s weird”, but we have nighttime campers sometimes. I open the door and there’s this man with a cane, a suit, and a bowling cap on his head. Looking really fancy. Maybe a wildclaw by the looks of it? I couldn’t tell.

He told me to look, next week before dusk, half a mile from where I found that woman’s pearl. Then he turned around and left.

I’m going to ask Silvius about it tomorrow. I think he’s still in the deep woods.


	5. Day 11, Summer

I know I haven’t been updating this as much as I should have. It got away from me. But today was a week from when that man visited me and told me to check for that lady. I did. And I found her.

There was no decomposition. No open wounds. Nothing other than just… her. Just her. Laying in the grass as if she had just sat down for a brief nap. There were fresh berries in her basket.

I reported the death to Silvius and we collected the body together and took it back to the Desmonds for them to check it. Silvius went back to the woods, saying he had to check something. I was left waiting for the Desmonds to figure out what happened.

One of the doctors, Melinda, told me that the cause of death was a standard heart attack about four hours from the time I found the woman. That made no sense, I told her this woman was missing for a little more than a week but she said their readings didn’t lie. That Death herself had stated the time of death. I never thought I would hear that one. I finally gave up and I came home.

Silvius was there waiting for me, chewing on some grass he had found. He asked me for a bowl of soup so of course I obliged. He said we needed to talk.

But we didn’t. He just chatted with me over the soup and then he left.

“See you tomorrow.” That was the last thing he said to me tonight.

Man… I need a therapist or something.


	6. Day 12, Summer

Silvius showed me his journal today. Well, not really a journal. More of a collection of scraps of paper he found lying around and scribbled on and then stuffed in some old canvas.

It’s filled with names and crude maps of the forest. He said the names are for everyone that was lost. The ones marked out were found. There are some names that still haven’t been marked out. And those maps? I looked them over. They make no sense. The forest seems to change every time Silvius tried to draw a new one. The only part of the maps that stay the same are the safe zone and about two miles out of it. After that? Nothing. Every river changes every crest of a hill or edge of a mountain. Even the caves seem to alter.

He says they aren’t like that when your out there. Wander around enough and you’ll eventually learn the whole forest. Every nook and cranny and tree. But it only happens to those that know nature. That know how the forest works.

He says it can tell if you respect its power. Its ancient, horrifying power. If you understand that what’s in there isn’t normal and its not supposed to be. The forest has built itself on something more ancient than magic and it refuses to die. It keeps spreading its roots.

Personally? Sounds like a load of bull shit, but Silvius seemed serious about it so I kept my mouth shut. Although I have to admit, a lot of weird stuff has been happening. I might take that mask to work with me after all.


	7. Day 14, Summer

I got close to quitting today.

A family decided to go past the safe zone and into the deep forests. The father was apparently overheard at the main picnic area spouting about how he knew more than the park rangers, yadda yadda. Probably got his entire family killed. And I think I know what did it.

After we closed the safe zone for an emergency search, Silvius took me into the deep woods as an extra pair of eyes. It was daylight, just about high noon. We had a system going where we would talk to each other as we looked. If one of our voices sounded too distant, we would shout the safe word and find each other again. This worked well up until a certain point.

I heard Silvius shout “What are your plans for the evening?”

He sounded a lot closer than before so I turned and shined my light into the trees. I saw him looking at me. Eyes pitch black, which is normal for him. Something just seemed a little off but I figured it was the light amount of fog from a nearby lake. Never mind the fact he already asked me this. But he wasn’t much of a conversationalist and wasn’t really paying attention to the conversation anyway so I brushed it off.

“Nothing much,” I said back. “Gonna make some soup, read. The usual.”

I expected him to move away but he didn’t. All he said was. “What are your plans for the evening?” again. It was at this point a chill went up my spine. He hadn’t moved, not even blinked.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and I almost screamed, but I saw Silvius come from behind me, his mask on. He took mine off my belt (I had brought it from home today) and he told me to put it on. Next thing I know, he’s waving his hands threatening and put a hand on his sword and shouted for the thing to get lost.

This goddamn mimic, copycat? whatever it was, just.... melted. Its fake body broke into pieces and the skin fell off like it was melting cheese and it hit the ground with a sickening, gross squelch. Then its bones began to rearrange itself and what was standing in front of us was this weird upside down person. The head was facing right, but everything else about its body seemed to be rotated. It would be as if I did an arch backwards until I was on my hands and feet, but managed to make my limbs poke out more and my neck twist all the way around.

Then this.... creature just screamed at Silvius and started to charge. He drew his sword and shouted for it to leave again and it made a quick turn and darted towards the lake.

We stopped searching for the family after that. Silvius took me home and he’s been here ever since. He’s sitting in the kitchen staring out the window. He hasn’t taken off the mask and has advised me to keep mine on at least for tonight.

He told me this thing is a skingait. Some sort of mimic that studied dragon and beast behavior, but the young ones always mess up with adults. Not enough facial expression, too many facial expressions, so on and so forth. But Silvius says they can only repeat what they hear last. And if not that, only very short phrases they pick up on and cling to.

He told me they come into the safe zone a lot. And if I’m not sure its a real dragon or beast, I need to wear my mask.

“It scares them,” he told me over dinner. “It scares everything there except maybe the goats.”

I asked him what he meant and he got quiet.

“If you see a goat out there, anywhere past the safe zone. On the edge of it, a foot past the border, anything. Don’t. Trust. It. Walk backwards if you have to but keep your eyes on it. Call for me, call for a goat, scream. I don’t care. Just... don’t stop looking at it. Don’t throw anything at it. Don’t talk to it. Just don’t.”

I don’t know what the fuck is out in those woods but... I don’t want to find out. I have to. I know I do. I can’t just leave. Silvius needs me here. He’s expressed how many times he likes having me here to help with the civilians while he works in the deep woods. Keeping the monsters at bay for as long as he can.

I’m going to ask for a raise tomorrow.


	8. Day 15, Summer

Silvius agreed to a raise. I was actually surprised. I brought it up as soon as it was time to leave for work and he said sure.

He had stayed the whole night. I don’t think he slept at all. He worked with me in the safe zone today, but he kept at the border. We wore our masks at all times.

Some visitors would see this and they just turned around and left, saying something came up. Others, Callaghan, with masks of their own, put them on.

Around lunch, he came to get me and took me out towards the border and pointed some tracks out. They were deer tracks. He had me follow them, although this time I poked him very thoroughly and asked him to say some really long, complicated sentence. He just slapped my hand away and told me to do as he said. It was Silvius. That’s for sure.

When I followed the tracks, they became... well... harpy tracks after. Then coatl. And finally they went back to deer tracks.

“It’s a young one. Practicing.” Silvius just shrugged. “I’m going to chase them away tonight. But if you see tracks, you need to follow them for a bit until you are sure. Unless they are fresh. Don’t follow those.”

I didn’t ask him why.

We were back at the picnic area after lunch and we were just chilling, making sure all the guests were in one location within sight. The warnings were set at red today. Apparently, that meant high danger, but not dangerous enough a hard-headed Donnelly wouldn’t shy away. Silvius told me about the time he watched a Donnelly wrestle a skingait adult to the ground. Had no idea what they were dealing with. Just thought it was a friendly wrestling match.

What bothered me about today, though, is what I saw on my walk home. It was a goat, which wasn’t unusual. But it had no brand and no chipped ear. A wild goat didn’t exist in Bovidae. They haven’t for centuries. All the goats are owned by someone. This goat stopped when I approached and stared at me. I almost forgot about what Silvius told me until this goat turned to face me. I swear it  _smiled_.

So I started to back up and called for Silvius. I expected him to come from behind me again and just shoo the goat off but that didn’t happen.

He came in, full dragon, Shade dripping from his mouth at this goat. The goat ran off and he gave chase, shouting for me to get home and lock the doors.

I didn’t waste anytime. I closed the curtains too.

For the last two hours I heard scratching around the  _entire house_. Not just the door. Not just the windows. Everywhere. It was so loud I couldn’t drown it out even with music or cooking or banging pots and pans together.

 

* * *

 

Silvius stopped by. He just slid a note under my door and sat on the other side. He then started telling me to only open the door if I wanted to but he was going to leave soon so not to bother. He apologized that my first few days had been so rough and how its just a bad season with hunting and guests. I was so confused, but every time I tried to interrupt him to ask about all the weird shit he just kept talking over me about how he’ll find some deer for us to hunt. Silvius doesn’t hunt.

I got the hint after a bit and read the note. Word for word, “They are listening. Stay indoors tomorrow. Don’t come out. Don’t look out the windows. Going to send professional help. Will be patrolling nearby. Scream if in danger. Act normal. It bores them.”

He left about five minutes ago. I’m cooking some soup, letting it simmer for a bit. Just started a shower so I can get clean before I eat. I’m trying to act natural, but I feel like there are eyes all on my walls. But there are’t. I sometimes hear Silvius growling at something. I’m glad he’s on my side.


End file.
